SECURE ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM WITH CONFIGURABLE CRYPTOGRAPHIC ENGINE

• US 20070113101A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Appriver Canada, ULC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Email2 SCP Solutions Inc.
• Inventors: Astudillo, Esteban, McLean, Matt, LeVasseur, Thierry, Rasmussen, Jeremy, Houg, Derek, Chen, Kung
• Granted Patent: US 7,822,820 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/189
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/68 Special signature format, e.g. XML format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 : the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 : above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 : intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 : using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 : involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 : involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.

Claims

1. A secure e-mail system, comprising:

a server system configured to store e-mail messages in an encrypted form, and providing functionality for addressees of the e-mail messages to retrieve corresponding e-mail messages;

a cryptographic engine that encrypts the e-mail messages for storage on the server system, and decrypts the e-mail messages for delivery to the addressees; and

an interface that provides functionality for an administrator to add an executable cryptographic method to the cryptographic engine, and to designate a particular executable cryptographic method to be used to encrypt/decrypt e-mail messages.

2. The secure e-mail system of claim 1, wherein the system configured to determine whether an executable cryptographic method supplied via the interface is digitally signed by a certification authority.

3. The secure e-mail system of claim 1, wherein the interface provides functionality for an administrator to set up a plurality of secure e-mail services on the server system, and to designate different executable cryptographic methods for use with different ones of said secure e-mail services.

4. The secure e-mail system of claim 3, further comprising an e-mail client component that provides an option for a sender of an e-mail message to select from the plurality of secure e-mail services for sending the e-mail message.

5. The secure e-mail system of claim 4, wherein the e-mail client component is an e-mail client plug-in that runs in conjunction with an e-mail client program.

6. The secure e-mail system of claim 4, wherein the e-mail client component is, or is part of, a web-based e-mail interface.

7. A secure e-mail system, comprising:

a cryptographic engine that includes a plurality of different executable cryptographic methods, at least some of which provide different levels of encryption than others;

a plurality of e-mail services that run on the server system and use the cryptographic engine to encrypt and decrypt e-mail messages, wherein each of the secure e-mail services is configured to use a particular one of the executable cryptographic methods, and at least some of the services are configured to use different executable cryptographic methods than others, so that different ones of said services provided different levels of security than others; and

an e-mail client component that provides functionality for a sender of an e-mail message to select between the plurality of e-mail services for sending the e-mail message to a recipient.

8. The secure e-mail system of claim 7, wherein the e-mail client component is an e-mail client plug-in that runs in conjunction with an e-mail client program.

9. The secure e-mail system of claim 7, wherein the e-mail client component is, or is part of, a web-based e-mail interface.

10. The secure e-mail system of claim 7, further comprising an interface that provides functionality for an administrator to add a new executable cryptographic method to the cryptographic engine.

11. The secure e-mail system of claim 10, wherein the interface inhibits the addition of executable cryptographic methods that are not digitally signed by a certification authority.

12. The secure e-mail system of claim 10, wherein the interface additionally provides functionality for the administrator to designate particular executable cryptographic methods to be used with particular ones of said e-mail services.

13. The secure e-mail system of claim 7, wherein the server system comprises multiple physical servers.

14. The secure e-mail system of claim 7, wherein the e-mail client component and plurality of e-mail services are configured to transfer the e-mail messages between senders and recipients without use of a store-and-forward model.